Quadrophenia Replica Lambretta sells for over $200,000!

Posted on by ScooterNova in Uncategorised

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On Saturday 23 November Sotheby’s in New York held a charity auction in aid of RED, a charity founded by Bono and Bobby Shriver in 2006 to engage business and people in the fight against AIDS.

Designers Jony Ive (design boss at Apple) and Marc Newson collaborated with musician Bono to organise the charity auction and one of the 44 lots was a replica of the Lambretta ridden by Jimmy in the film Quadrophenia. To add to this,
it was also signed by Pete Townsend and Roger Daltrey from The Who. Because of these, and no doubt because the replica looks pretty damn good, auctioneer Sotheby’s put an estimate on the Lambretta of U$30,000 — 50,000. They were probably considering too that back in December 2008, Bonhams’ auction house sold the ‘original’ Lambretta used in the 1979 film, complete with the logbook for the KRU 251F number plate (the F was covered over for the film as it was set in 1964 and this was a 1967 scooter). How much of the bike was original and how much fitted at a later date as the scooter was privately owned and used as such, is of course unknown… Anyway the Bonhams’ estimate for the scooter was between £20,000 and £25,000 but it eventually went for £36,000 include buyer’s premium and other stuff you have to pay after an auction.

This was the scooter used as Jimmy's Lambretta from the 1979 film Quadrophenia.

A recently built replica of Jimmy's Lambretta from the film Quadrophenia.
A recently built replica of Jimmy’s Lambretta from the film Quadrophenia.

 

Anyway, back to New York and the replica Lambretta sold for a whopping U$ 209,000 (hammer price with buyer’s premium), which for those of us in Blighty is almost £128,000 and surely some kind of record amount paid for a classic scooter?
I doubt the replica will be ridden much anyway, as the kind of person who spends that sort of cash doesn’t ride their toys, and probably doesn’t know that he could get a bespoke replica built to his own exact specification for a fraction of the price, probably pay Leslie Ash an appearance fee to pose for photos on the pillion and still have enough left over to buy her an ice cream afterwards!
The U$209,000 replica of Jimmy's Lambretta from the film Quadrophenia.
The U$209,000 replica of Jimmy’s Lambretta from the film Quadrophenia.

2 thoughts on “Quadrophenia Replica Lambretta sells for over $200,000!”

  1. Probably have enough left over to buy Leslie Ash a 99. Always had a soft spot for Toyah (or Monkey as she was known) in that film, although our Leslie was an absolute cracker… before the botox anyway.

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